Stealth taxes snatch £241 billion from working people as Britons paying higher rate surges

New HMRC statistics released yesterday show that 2.5million more people are now being dragged into paying income tax overall.

In April this year the point at which individuals start paying additional rate (45 per cent) tax was cut from £150k to £125k.

However, those paying the 40 per cent higher rate and 45 per cent additional rates of income tax will contribute an additional £31billion more in 2023/24 than in 2021/22, according to figures from HM Revenue and Customs.

This means millions of middle-income workers are being shifted into paying rates originally intended for wealthy individuals.

GB News' Liam Halligan said: "The personal threshold is £12,570 and then you start paying the higher rate of and you pay tax at 20 per cent above that and then you pay the higher rate, 40 per cent above £50,270.00.

"Now, because of inflation and increases in wages, when the thresholds are frozen, someone who is on £20,000 a year, they're going to pay £870 more in tax without the rate of tax going up.

"The rate stays where it is, it stays at 20 per cent, they don't think taxes have risen, but they're going to end up paying a lot more tax because of fiscal drag.

"And slightly higher up the income schedule 5.6 million people are now going to be paying the higher rate of tax that's getting on for 20 per cent of the workforce.

"These people aren't wealthy and that's 41 per cent more people then will be paying tax at the higher rate even though the rates of income tax haven't changed."

The latest figures illustrate the growing weight of Britain's tax burden, which is heading for its highest level as a proportion of GDP since the Second World War.

Halligan added: "It's up to the British government, they're elected if they want to raise taxes, you know, fill your boots, be up front about it.

"Don't do it in a way that you expect people not to understand. We talked about the current government, this was something Gordon Brown Institute when he was a Labour - he was the master of fiscal drag.

"And the problem with it is people don't know, top rate of tax goes up or the basic rate of income tax goes up, it's on the front page of every newspaper for a week, it's a major constitutional issue.

"And yet this has much, much, much more effect, that £870 on 20 grand, that's the equivalent of like a four peak rise in the basic rate of income tax and who's going to notice? It just keeps coming at people, doesn't it?"